scholarly journals External mentoring for new teachers: mentor learning for a change agenda

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 178-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Daly ◽  
Emmajane Milton
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
New Teachers ◽  
Early Career ◽  
First Year ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Career Teachers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on a qualitative study of the learning and development of 70 external mentors during the first year of their deployment to support early career teachers’ professional learning as part of a national initiative aimed at school improvement in Wales. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a narrative methodology that elicited accounts of external mentors’ learning experiences that were captured as textual data and analysed using an inductive approach to identify: first, the manifest themes that appeared at declarative level, and second, the latent (sub-textual) themes of external mentor learning and development. Findings Four key themes emerged that indicate the complexity of transition to the role of external mentor in high-stakes contexts. From these, eight theoretically-informed principles were derived which support mentors to embrace uncertainty as essential to their learning and development, and to harness the potential they bring as boundary-crossers to support the development of new teachers. Research limitations/implications The study investigated the first year of a three-year programme and worked with one form of qualitative data collection. The research results may lack generalisability and a longitudinal study is necessary to further explore the validity of the findings. Practical implications The eight principles provide a foundation for mentor development programmes that can support ambitious goals for mentoring early career teachers. Originality/value The study addresses the under-researched area of the learning and development of external mentors at a national scale.

Challenges and complexities of developing mentors’ practice: insights from new mentors

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Gardiner ◽  
Nina Weisling
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
First Year ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Sense Of Efficacy ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Axial Coding ◽  
Complex Relationships

Purpose Induction mentoring for early career teachers is a complex practice, requiring knowledge and skills distinct from teaching. However, more is known anecdotally than empirically about the challenges new mentors face and the type of support they need as they transition from teacher to induction mentor. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study investigated how nine first-year mentors developed, conceptualized and enacted their mentoring practice by asking, what supports/inhibits new mentors’ professional learning and practice? Are there patterns of struggle/challenge that new mentors face? Primary data sources included three 45–60-minute structured, individual interviews across each mentor’s first year. Data analysis was inductive, involving open and axial coding. Findings Mentors struggled to navigate multiple complex relationships with administrators, teachers and students. The quality of these relationships impacted their sense of efficacy and mentoring ability. Despite receiving what mentors perceived as effective professional development (PD), all mentors found it difficult to apply knowledge in practice. Mentors also experienced a steep and varied learning curve and identified supports that enhanced their knowledge and situated application of new teacher-centered mentoring. Originality/value Despite increases in mentoring programs, there is a lack of research addressing new mentors’ needs and development. This study makes a contribution by identifying new mentors’ needs and challenges and by providing recommendations for situated, responsive, and ongoing PD.

scholarly journals More than a mentor

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Struyve ◽  
Alan Daly ◽  
Machteld Vandecandelaere ◽  
Chloé Meredith ◽  
Karin Hannes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Job Attitudes ◽  
Intention To Leave ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Experienced Teachers ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Career Teachers

Purpose – The number of early career teachers leaving the profession continues to be an ongoing issue across the globe. This pressing concern has resulted in increased attention to the instructional and psychological conditions necessary to retain early career educators. However, less formal attention has been paid to the social infrastructure in which early career teachers find themselves. The purpose of this paper is to foreground the role of social capital and its effect on job attitudes and educators’ intention to leave the profession. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 736 teachers within ten secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). Using social network and multilevel moderated mediation analysis techniques, the relationships between teachers’ social connectedness, job attitudes, and the intention to leave the profession for both novice and experienced teachers were analyzed. Findings – Findings indicate that being socially connected to other educators within the school is associated with a reduction in teachers’ intention to leave the profession, mediated by their job attitudes, for both early career and experienced teachers. However, social connectedness was significantly more important for early career teachers. No significant effects are found for being socially connected to the mentor. Originality/value – This study provides evidence for the importance of social capital for teachers, particularly early career educators. Moreover, by introducing teachers’ social connectedness as related to intention to leave, this study makes a significant and unique contribution to the literature.

scholarly journals Early Career Teachers’ Evolving Content-Area Literacy Practices

in education ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Anne Murray-Orr ◽  
Jennifer Mitton-Kukner
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Content Area Literacy ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Content Area ◽  
First Year ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
Career Teachers

Becoming effective teachers is dependent upon a variety of factors intersecting with early career teachers’ beginning teaching experiences. This paper provides a glimpse into ways in which four early career secondary school teachers began to embed literacies into their teaching practices in content areas and how their approaches shifted between the final term of their teacher education program in 2013 and their first year of teaching in 2014. The authors explore three factors that may shape the practices of early career teachers, with disciplinary specialties in science, math, social studies, and other content areas, as they persist in infusing their teaching practice with literacy strategies over the first year of teaching, or alternatively discontinue using these strategies. These factors are coursework in a Literacy in the Content Areas course during their teacher education program, teaching context, and disciplinary specialty.Keywords: early-career teachers; secondary teachers; content-area literacy; disciplinary literacy; pedagogical content knowledge

Curricular coaches’ impact on retention for early-career elementary teachers in the USA

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
David De Jong ◽  
Ayana Campoli
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Teachers ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Early Career Teacher ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Career Teachers ◽  
Career Teacher

Purpose Researchers have found that curricular coaches have had an impact on student achievement by supporting classroom teachers in providing high-quality instruction. However, few studies examine the association between curricular coaches and teacher retention, especially in urban areas. Given the high cost of teacher turnover and the high percentage of early-career teachers who leave the profession each year, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the presence of curricular coaches in elementary schools reduces turnover among early-career teachers. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors analyzed the observational data from the 2007-2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). The SASS is a nationally representative cross-sectional survey that has been administered repeatedly to public and private kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers in the USA approximately every four years by the National Center for Education Statistics and the US Census Bureau. Findings The authors found that the presence of a curricular coach was associated with a substantial reduction in early-career teacher turnover. This finding suggests that curricular coaches could be a particular benefit to urban schools. Research limitations/implications This study was national in scope; therefore, it does not examine causes of attrition specific to local contexts. Practical implications Curricular coaches may indirectly save urban school districts thousands of dollars because of their impact on reducing early-career teacher attrition. Social implications In this study, the authors found a statistically significant and practically meaningful association between the presence of curricular coaches in schools and the retention of elementary teachers, especially in urban areas. Originality/value The model predicted that among early-career teachers, teachers in schools without curricular coaches are approximately twice as likely to leave the profession the next year compared to teachers in schools with curricular coaches.

‘Show me what it’s supposed to look like’: Exploring mindfulness-based support for early career teachers in an era of neoliberal reform

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 828-847
Author(s):  
Nicole Damico ◽  
Caitlyn McKinzie Bennett ◽  
Angelica Fulchini
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
Early Career ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
Group Setting ◽  
Informal Group ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Neoliberal Reform ◽  
Career Teachers

In an era of top-down mandates and neoliberal reform policies, early career teachers must receive sustained social and emotional support as part of their regular professional development in order to navigate the murky waters of education that can sometimes feel disempowering and disillusioning. Teachers in high-poverty urban schools, who often deal with additional variables like student achievement gaps, disparate funding and high teacher turnover, among myriad other hurdles, are often highly impacted by these policies. This study examined the experiences of a group of early career teachers in an urban school district that participated in a mindfulness-based professional learning intervention. Findings show that participants not only experienced increased self-efficacy in assuaging personal and professional stressors, but also connected newly acquired strategies to the ways they supported the diverse students in their classrooms. Implications from this study suggest that learning about mindfulness-based strategies in an informal group setting can be beneficial for teachers, both personally and professionally, as they navigate the tensions of beginning their careers embedded in “the neoliberal program of reform”.

Improving Teacher Professional Learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 147-166
Author(s):  
Addie Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
District Leaders ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Career Teachers

This chapter examines the role of effective teacher professional learning as a support for early career teachers. It establishes the importance of teacher professional learning as a mechanism of increasing student achievement and investigates traditional professional development models' ineffectiveness. This chapter also includes a discussion of the merits of the cycle of inquiry model of teacher professional learning and explores the need to develop teachers as whole persons. The author identifies effective professional learning for teachers and asserts best practices for school administrators, district leaders, decision-makers, and other stakeholders to design and implement effective teacher professional learning that ultimately increases student achievement. This chapter concludes that cycles of inquiry that develop the whole teacher will enhance teacher professional learning and offer the greatest and most effective support for early career teachers.

The role of mentoring in early career physics teachers’ professional identity construction

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cameron ◽  
Anna Grant
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
Physics Teachers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Career Teachers ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which external subject-specific mentoring can influence the professional identity construction of early career physics teachers (ECPT). Design/methodology/approach The methodology evolved from the evaluation of a mentoring project, involving semi-structured interviews with a number of early career teachers. Responses from 18 teachers, which related to the impact of the mentoring relationship on their professional identity development, were subject to a process of iterative thematic coding in the context of interpretative repertoires via a collaborative “developmental dialogue” between the managers of the mentoring project and its external evaluators. Findings The analysis of participants’ responses suggested that the nature of the relationship between early career teacher and mentor played a role in the emergence, or suppression, of their professional identities as physics teachers at the start of their teaching careers. In some cases, mentoring provision was little short of a “lifeline” for the teachers. Practical implications Mentors need the opportunity to develop their professional practice and identity through contact with the community of teacher educators. The practice of training, mentoring and coaching teachers should be valued at least as much as teaching itself and should be recognised as its own professional practice. Originality/value This study builds on a number of well-established pieces of research and concepts relating to the challenges facing early career teachers and their professional identity construction. It provides insight into the challenges facing ECPTs specifically, which includes the risk of isolation and unrealistic expectations from colleagues. It not only confirms the merits of external mentoring, but also demonstrates the significant responsibility, which comes with the mentor’s role and the negative impact on teachers’ professional identity construction caused by deficiencies in mentoring.

New principals, accountability, and commitment in low-performing schools

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 558-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Shirrell
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
First Year ◽  
Urban District ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Contexts ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
First Year Principals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine first-year principals’ sense-making about two potentially conflicting demands as they take over low-performing urban schools: the demand to exert control over their teachers’ practice, and the need to build their teachers’ trust, collegiality, and commitment. Design/methodology/approach – This study draws on a series of surveys and interviews with 12 first-year principals that took over some of the lowest-performing public schools in one large urban district. Findings – Some principals begin their first year seeing their work to build accountability and commitment as complementary, while others see these two areas as in tension. Principals remain relatively consistent in these approaches over their first year on the job, although some principals change their views, generally coming to see these two areas as increasingly separate over time. Research limitations/implications – Future work should examine principals’ work to balance the demands of accountability and commitment in a variety of organizational contexts. Practical implications – Principal preparation may benefit from training principals on the particular challenges they may face as they work with teachers in low-performing schools. Accountability systems may also seek to alter the demands placed on novice principals. Originality/value – Despite the centrality of principals to school improvement, the prevalence of high-stakes school accountability, and findings on the importance of commitment to school success, little empirical research has examined how principals make sense of the potentially conflicting demands of accountability and commitment in highly pressured circumstances.

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